Dark Ruins Dawn

Chapter 49 Hope
The old foreman patted him on the shoulder, with a strong pat.

He forced a smile, trying to lighten the mood.

"The good news is that you don't have to pay back the high-interest loan you owed your coworkers."

Watson did not laugh.

He looked down at his hands, which were covered in red sugarcane juice, and after a long while, he managed to squeeze out a sentence.

"I'm really reaching the final stop..."

Late at night, during curfew, the entire camp was placed under martial law.

The old foreman came out of the hideout with a heavy weight on his mind, barely taking a few bites of the protein bars.

He stepped outside the camp, wanting to get some fresh air, but in the shade of a tree in the distance, he saw someone who shouldn't be there.

A strange man, a third-class citizen.

"Who are you?" the old foreman frowned.

"I'm here to save Watson." Zhuang Fan didn't beat around the bush.

The old foreman was stunned, not understanding what was going on.

"you"

"I am Guangtu."

The old foreman's pupils suddenly contracted.

Of course he remembered the name; it was the guy who had swindled all of Watson's money.

"You're wanted by the nuclear forces, yet you still dare to come back to rescue people? Aren't you afraid I'll sound the alarm?" the old foreman sneered.

"Then you can?"

Zhuang Fan spoke casually, but a cloud of black mist had already gathered at his fingertips, ready to be unleashed at any moment.

The old foreman didn't respond directly, but said slowly, "That child was a good one; it's a pity he died here."

"Is it because of the red-label status?"

"Well, nobody can say for sure how fast the sugar factory can process it. Watson could be thrown into a centrifuge at any moment."

A flicker of anger crossed Zhuang Fan's mind.

The founder of Charlie Sugar Factory was Charlie Willivan, an old codger about the same age as Xu Renyi, equally cunning and treacherous.

He put the debt aside for now and said in a deep voice, "I need your help."

"help?"

The old foreman smiled bitterly: "How can we help? There's a curfew now. As long as we leave the hideout, the collar will sound an alarm. If we dare to leave the camp, it might even explode."

Zhuang Fan's tone was very calm:

“When I was redeemed from my servitude, the administrator used a metal device to fasten the collar around my neck, and it came off automatically.”

"You mean the collar release device."

Of course the foreman knew about this thing.

"But that place is heavily guarded; not even a fly can get in. The gate is made of a special alloy, so you can't break it down."

"Normally, that is indeed the case."

Previously, even when Zhuang Fan was wearing the collar, he couldn't get close to that area, otherwise it would trigger a self-destruct warning.

"But things are different now."

Zhuang Fan took out the deactivator.

The old foreman was so shocked by what he saw that he was speechless. He knew how tight the security was at the front gate.

"how did you do that."

“I have my own methods. The problem now is how to get Watson out of here.”

During curfew, the security at the hideout is tightened, and each bunk has an electronic lock on its iron bars; opening it will trigger an alarm.

Zhuang Fan was unwilling to alert the enemy if there was a better way.

The old foreman remained silent, knowing it was his turn.

He told Zhuang Fan to wait where he was, then turned around and went back to his hideout.

He walked to Watson's bunk and unlocked the electronic lock.

"Get up, the battalion commander wants to see you."

Watson awoke with a start, his face full of confusion.

The foreman didn't explain, but simply changed the status of his collar on the terminal to "on official business," temporarily expanding his range of activities.

After receiving the alarm, the security guard immediately went to the door.

Seeing that it was the old foreman, they asked in confusion:
"Old man, it's curfew time, where are you taking him?"

"The red-label personnel, the battalion commander personally gave the order, and we urgently need to see him."

"Okay, show me the transfer order."

"I haven't done it yet. I'll finish it later. Don't waste your precious time."

The old foreman's voice carried an unquestionable authority.

The guards all knew the old man; they knew he never lied and was very disciplined.

"Let them pass."

Hua Sheng remained silent throughout, quietly following behind the old foreman. The two walked out of the camp one after the other.

Watson's movement was restricted, so the old foreman led him as far as possible toward blind spots in the surveillance cameras, until they arrived at an abandoned warehouse.

Beside the warehouse stood a familiar yet unfamiliar figure.

"Brother Guangtu?" Hua Sheng called out tentatively.

"It's me. We'll talk outside."

Zhuang Fan stepped forward and took out the metal instrument.

"Click."

With a soft click, the collar that had bound Watson for months came off, and a long-lost sense of ease spread throughout his body.

Watson subconsciously touched his neck, where only a faint red mark remained.

Zhuang Fan picked up the collar, secretly injected a large amount of black mist into it, and then threw it into a corner of the warehouse.

“You all follow me.”

He led the two men to the most secluded part of the camp, under a wall.

The wall was thick and wide, but there was an inconspicuous hole at the bottom.

It was carved out by Zhuang Fan using decaying mist, and it could only accommodate one person to crawl through.

He removed a few of the covering bricks and stones, allowing Watson and the old foreman to crawl through first.

But the old foreman shook his head; he wanted to stay.

Zhuang Fan frowned: "Are you crazy? You're not coming with us, you're staying here to die?"

Watson stared wide-eyed, looking completely bewildered.

The old foreman gave a relieved smile and pointed to his temple.

“Administrators all need to have tracking chips implanted, they are very high-level, and they are connected to the internet the whole time, you can’t remove them.”

He then pointed to several white vertical poles in the distance.

“This wall has an electronic fence. Once I leave, it will trigger the highest alarm, and then no one can escape.”

The two fell silent.

“I have no one to rely on, all my children are dead, and I don’t have many years left to live. I’m just going to rot here anyway.”

The old foreman turned his head and looked at Watson with his cloudy eyes.

His eyes held a sense of vicissitude and weariness, yet also a glimmer of hope that he himself was unaware of.

"But you are still young and have hope. Don't end up like me, toiling away your whole lives and not even having a decent grave."

"."

Watson fell silent, unsure of what to say.

The old foreman smiled and continued:

"Don't be intimidated by their airs; they're just empty shells that will dissipate with the wind."

"What truly frightens them is people like you who have nothing."

So live well, and live a life worthy of being called human.

He patted the two of them on the shoulder again, this time with more force than before.

Watson's lips moved, and his eyes reddened slightly.

He then realized that if it weren't for the old foreman secretly taking care of him these past few days, he probably wouldn't have been able to hold on.

The old foreman looked at Zhuang Fan.

Do you have a gun with you?

"Have."

"Give me one."

Zhuang Fan guessed what was going on, but without asking any further questions, he handed the pistol to the old foreman.

Watson stood aside, watching the two men, not understanding what they were doing.

"Alright, you can go now. What are you all standing there for?"

The old foreman reverted to his impatient and authoritative demeanor.

Zhuang Fan nodded and gave him a deep look; he was a respectable old man.

"Take care of yourself!"

The old foreman stared at the low opening until the two figures completely disappeared into the darkness.

He remained silent, using his rough hands to stuff the pieces of rubble back into place.

He grabbed a handful of dry weeds and carefully covered up all traces.

After doing all this, he slowly stood up and patted the dust off his hands.

He didn't look back even once more.

In the distance, beams of searchlight pierced the darkness of the camp.

A large number of security soldiers have been deployed and are searching for him and Watson.

Once the collar is removed, the device will enter hibernation mode and be marked as offline in the system, thus triggering an alarm.

The old foreman didn't hide; his wrinkled face showed relief as he walked back to the shade of the trees, as if waiting for something.

He heard footsteps getting closer and closer, took the last puff of smoke deep into his lungs, and then slowly exhaled.

He threw the cigarette butt on the ground, stubbed it out, and kept doing so until the last spark died out.

He pulled a pistol from his pocket.

He pressed the muzzle of the gun against his temple, aiming it at the scar left from when the chip was implanted.

"boom--!"

(End of this chapter)